BEST OF: The art and science of grit, ambition, & betting on yourself

BEST OF: The art and science of grit, ambition, & betting on yourself

Author: BKBT Productions August 24, 2026 Duration: 35:57
The voices telling you it won't work usually belong to people who never tried. Nobody gives you permission to take a chance. You just do it. Chris built a 50K MRR business without a formal education, a tech background, or a plan. It started when a car dealership paid him $400 to be in a commercial and he thought — if I can pretend to do this, what happens if I just actually do it? From there it was APIs learned on someone else's Amex, webhook integrations figured out under pressure, and enough failures to make most people quit. He's now responsible for 40% of some dealerships' bottom lines, working remotely from Ottawa, heading to Costa Rica. We talked about why people don't take that first step. Chris's take is it's mostly the room you're in. When you move somewhere nobody knows you, the risk calculus changes. The voices telling you you're going to look stupid usually belong to people who never left. We also got into social media — the throttled notification drip sequences designed to keep you coming back, the rage bait economy, the positive reinforcement loop that rewards the most outrageous behavior. His advice was simple: put your phone down and take life at face value. Originally aired: Feb 23, 2026

There’s a lot of noise in the world of technology talk, but Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks cuts through it with a focus on the people behind the products and the societal currents shaping our digital landscape. Hosts George K and George A steer conversations that are less about specs and hype, and more about real-world consequences. You’ll hear them dig into topics like the messy rollout of new AI tools, the often-invisible backbone of digital infrastructure, and why communities adopt or reject certain technologies. This podcast regularly features guests from various fields who offer unvarnished opinions on what’s genuinely functional and what’s fundamentally flawed in our tech-saturated lives. The discussions move beyond simple commentary to challenge the standard narratives promoted by the tech industry, examining the cultural and social ripples of every new development. It’s a show for anyone who feels that technology coverage often misses the human element-the frustrations, the adaptations, and the ethical dilemmas. Tune in for a grounded, critical, and consistently engaging dialogue that connects the dots between code and culture. This production from BKBT Productions lives up to its name, getting down to the brass tacks of how technology is built and used, with a bare-knuckle honesty that’s increasingly rare.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks
Podcast Episodes
Who is served & who gets protected when leaders only look up? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:05
When an institution says it's changing, how do you tell the difference between real reform and a vocabulary update? Charlotte Duval-Lantoine has spent years studying organizations that adopt the language of culture chang…
If US politics is rigged, can we build a new civic internet? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:53
What if the problem with American democracy isn't that the system is broken, but that it's working exactly as intended, just not for you? Travis Misurell, founder of FiNC (Future is Now Coalition), has spent years watchi…
Leveling Up is about fixing your own broken code (REPLAY) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:03
The travel schedules and time zone tango is real. This week, revisit one of the most downloaded episodes this season, with Rachelle Tanguay. What if your biggest career obstacle isn't external—it's the "broken code" runn…
Why your network is shallower than you think, and how to change it [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:18
What if the reason most people struggle to build meaningful professional relationships isn't effort — it's that they've mistaken a transaction for a foundation? David Homan [https://orchestratedconnecting.com/about/] has…
What the AI datacenter build out looks like from the ground up [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:19
What happens when a community votes no…but the #AI datacenter construction starts anyway? That is not a hypothetical. It's what happened in Saline Township, Michigan, when a $16 billion OpenAI-Oracle data center was reje…
The Everything Machine and the Trillion-Dollar Bet [Replay] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:02
What if the story we're being told about AI's inevitability is hiding something underneath? That's the question Jessica Parker and Kimberly Becker put to George K. on their podcast, Women Talking 'Bout AI [https://www.wo…
AI is doing real good and real harm, but the hype is hiding both [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:16
The AI hype machine is taking up all the oxygen we need to actually stop the harm happening today. This month we heard from three guests who didn't compare notes. Didn't coordinate. And all three circled the same thing:…